Watch Again

Inside Windsor Castle:

Why Queen Victoria Was an Early Adopter of Photography

Why Queen Victoria Was an Early Adopter of Photography

Short | 02:16

In the 1840s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert set up elaborate white winter interiors and decorated trees to celebrate Christmas at Windsor Castle. But the photographs they released to the public told a more modest story.

Tags

More About This episode

In the early 1970s, all was well in Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II had balanced the demands of her extraordinary job and family, and capped the year with a lavish 25th wedding anniversary celebration. But over the next 20 years, bitter divisions and domestic disasters would rock the Royal Family, resulting in four doomed marriages and their 1,000-year-old home engulfed in flames. Witness the time when Windsor became home to one of the unhappiest families in Britain, as their secrets spilled out from behind the castle walls.